TACKLING ADVERSITY: Brooklyn native Ishaq Williams, making a tackle against Navy, has overcome the loss of his brother and will play for Notre Dame in the BCS Championship. Photo: Getty Images

AJ McCarron (AP)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — The tattoo on Ishaq Williams’ right triceps is an homage to his younger brother, Emmanuel, the one he refers to as having been a “goofy” kid, full of life and laughter.

Ishaq and “Manny,” born less than two years apart, were as close as brothers could be, playing every sport together, wrestling on the living room floor, always keeping an eye out for the other. Ishaq won’t talk about — and can’t talk about — that day, April 23, 2010, when he came home to find 15-year-old Manny shot dead in the family’s Brooklyn home by an unknown assailant.

But when Williams and his Notre Dame teammates take the field in Sun Life Stadium tomorrow night to play Alabama for the BCS National Championship, Ishaq will not be alone. Manny will be on his arm and in his heart.

“It’s a great opportunity, not only for him but for my team, for how hard we’ve worked,” Williams told The Post. “Because he would be here, too. He would be at a level like this as well. Just knowing that one of us made it…”

Williams’ voice trails off.

His mother, Anastasia Lewis-Dodson, said it was Williams who found his brother in an upstairs bedroom, who called the police, who tried to revive Manny.

“I can’t imagine what it was like for Ishaq finding him,” Anastasia said of the shooting, which remains unsolved. “I’m sure it’s haunted him.

“There was one day we were taking the train back from Philadelphia to Brooklyn, and we didn’t know Manny had gotten on the train so we didn’t,” she said. “When Ishaq realized Manny was on the train he started bawling. He was so worried about his little brother.”

Williams is a marvelous physical specimen at 6-foot-5, 255 pounds. He had 21 tackles, 3 1/2 tackles for loss and one forced fumble as Notre Dame’s first outside linebacker off the bench.

“He could be that player that makes the big play Monday night,” his roommate, linebacker Prince Shembo, said.

Williams almost didn’t get to this point. Until coach Brian Kelly took over three years ago, Notre Dame didn’t recruit public schools in the city.

“We are now and Ishaq gives us that bridge that we can go back there,” Kelly said.

Williams was Notre Dame material because in Anastasia, a former power forward at Syracuse, and his father, Shaun, a former football player for the Orange, he had two advocates that believed in athletics and education. He has Anastasia tattooed on the inside of his left bicep and Shaun on the inside of his right bicep.

It was Anastasia who first introduced her boys to football, after basketball didn’t stick.

“Manny was down at one end of the court, dancing around,” she said. “Ishaq was doing whatever. So we tried football. Ishaq was a star as soon as he stepped on the field.”

In third grade the boys moved to Brooklyn to live with Shaun. By the time Ishaq was at Lincoln High School, he was the No. 1 recruit in the state and his father was rising early to work out with his son.

“Ishaq isn’t just playing for Manny, he’s playing for all of New York City,” his father said. “His legacy is that if you work hard, you can go from Brooklyn to a place like Notre Dame.”

It was hard for Williams initially to find his place in South Bend. Notre Dame’s tree-lined campus is a contrast to the concrete and subways of the city. And for the first time in his athletic life, Williams wasn’t the best player on his team.

“Ishaq, when he first played here he wasn’t confident,” star linebacker Manti Te’o said. “He’s developed into a confident player.

“When you have that confidence when you line up against somebody else and know you’re going to smack ’em and you’re going to beat ’em, you become a very dangerous player. Ishaq has become a dangerous player and a weapon for our defense.”

He is a silent weapon. Shembo said he learned of Manny only after seeing a picture of him in a card Ishaq treasures.

“He keeps it to himself,” Shembo said. “I’m really the only one that’s every seen it.”

No, Williams won’t talk about Manny, but the look in his eyes says it all. His brother is with him — always.